A standard lamp socket for use in a motor-vehicle taillight or the like comprises a housing formed of insulating material and having one end open and adapted to receive the base of the lamp and an opposite end in which the contacts connected to the lamp are exposed. Typically the housing is L-shaped in order to reduce installation height, as the old-style straight units took up too much room, and the contacts are set up to interfit with a two-conductor plug. The bulb leg of the socket is fitted through a hole in a panel of the vehicle and sealed.
In order to assemble the unit a side of the plug leg of the housing is formed with a flap or left open so that the contacts can be fitted to this leg from inside. Once installed the lateral opening is plugged or the flap is closed and sealed. Similarly in order to accommodate what is normally a bayonet-mount bulb, the sides of the bulb leg of the housing must be punched and these holes subsequently filled also.
Such a socket therefore is inherently weakened by the several openings formed in it and subsequently closed. In addition the formation and closing of these openings substantially increases fabrication costs, and when not done properly the socket is not watertight, which it must be when used in a motor-vehicle taillight or the like.